Alabama sisters find fame with YouTube beauty advice and online fashion boutique – AL.com

YouTube is not just a hobby for two Tuscaloosa sisters — it’s a career.

Tracy Fourt and Stefanie St. John have nearly 2 million subscribers to their channel eleventhgorgeous, where they talk about all things beauty, and a new online clothing boutique that sold out of most items within hours of opening.

“I was never that into makeup or fashion,” Fourt, 34, said. The sisters first started watching YouTube beauty videos in 2008, when Tracy was looking for ideas to complete her Halloween costume.

They uploaded their first video to eleventhgorgeous in February, 2009.

Fast forward seven years, and the sisters upload multiple videos a week to an audience of millions.

Fourt, a University of Alabama graduate, had a business background. St. John, 28, worked in the medical field. Neither had any experience in videography or in beauty, but they threw themselves into their channel and worked into the night and on weekends filming and editing videos.

In 2012, the sisters quit their jobs and made YouTube their full-time career.

“Our husbands took us out to dinner and said, ‘We know you can do it, and we believe in you,'” Fourt said.

Their parents were nervous about the women giving up their steady salaries and benefits, St. John said, but they stood by their daughters and now are some of the biggest supporters of eleventhgorgeous.

At the beginning of September, the pair opened an online clothing boutique, Madison and Mallory. They sold out of most items within hours.

“We had always wanted [to open a boutique], so we said, ‘Let’s just do it!'” St. John said.

“We underestimated how much stock we needed… We had no idea.”

Fourt said she thought the store would be well-received by their massive audience, but she didn’t want to get overly excited.

“You hope it’s going to do well, but you have doubts.”

Fourt and St. John had never owned a business before, nor sold clothing.

“If we don’t know how to do something… we throw ourselves into it.”

They researched how to start their business, and traveled multiple times to Market by AmericasMart in Atlanta for purchasing. They wanted to create a collection of affordable clothing, that women of all sizes could wear.

“You don’t want to spend money, but stay on trend. We’re all about affordability,” Fourt said.

The theme of affordability is seen on eleventhgorgeous, too- most videos have some component of drugstore makeup brands.

Even though the store is time-consuming and “intense,” the women said, they still devote time to making new videos and connecting with their fans.

“When we first started YouTube, we got texts about new subscribers. We celebrated every single one,” Fourt said.

And they still do.

“We’ve had good steady growth,” St. John said, explaining they never experienced a quick jump in followers, or a sudden decline.

Videos on eleventhgorgeous range from testing new products, talking about favorite brands and items, and finding “great options for less [money],” Fourt said.

The pair said they like to make videos that they would enjoy watching.

Even though they are often recognized as Internet celebrities and travel around the country for conventions and trade shows, Fourt and St. John think of themselves as any other Tuscaloosa women.

“Being home keeps us who we are,” Fourt said. “It’s kept us real,” her sister added.

The sisters, who live across the street, spend much of their time together, and their husbands are close friends. They watch Alabama football games at home- “You get a better view at home,” Fourt said- and sometimes argue, like most sisters do.

“They really are best friends,” assistant Erin Richardson said.

“Even if we are mad at each other when we start filming… we forget about our spats after,” St. John said.

The pair said they would love to have their own clothing label one day, but they will continue creating makeup videos.

“We want to make this what we do for as long as possible,” Fourt said.

“We’ll make YouTube videos until we’re grannies,” St. John said.

Visit Madison and Mallory here and see more eleventhgorgeous videos here.